There are several methods used to treat cancer.1 The most common are: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy.1-6 Other procedures are based on stem cell transplant, photodynamic therapy, and cryogenic therapy.1 Lasers are nowadays a useful tool during surgery of localized cancers. Many of these methods are quite effective. However, most present important side effects.7,8 Hence, the need to discover alternative therapeutics and treatment modalities. Particularly, compounds and treatment protocols that could simultaneously attack cancer on diverse fronts (initiation, propagation, metastasis etc.) are of great interest.
Urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) is the fifth most common malignancy of all cancers in North America. Although most of detectable tumors are initially non-muscle-invasive and are generally curable by means of chirurgical resection, 27-30% of them exhibit a lethal phenotype characterized by high histological grade and muscle invasion. Recent studies have also provided ample evidence that UBC intravesical therapy response is influenced by infiltration of major inflammatory cells (mainly macrophages) and activation of key inflammatory mediators (including the cytokines TNFα and IL6 and the transcription factors NFκB and STAT3). Considering the critical functions of inflammatory mediators in UBC growth, dissemination and resistance to cell death, they may represent potential drug targets to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy and chemotherapy agents.